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Game Critics Awards

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An independent group of about 30 North American media outlets who, since 1998, determine the best games of the Electronic Entertainment Expo.

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Overview

The Game Critics Awards are decided by an independent group of North American media outlets. They have selected the most promising games of each Electronic Entertainment Expo since 1998, and have thus become recognized as the most respected "Best of" awards that come out of the annual show. Games qualify for nomination by having hands-on playable versions of the game at the show. Games that are not available for play by the judges (i.e. shown only in trailers, announcements, or developer walkthroughs) do not qualify, but can still be considered for Special Commendations.

Judges

As of 2012, there are 35 media outlets considered as judges for the awards. Included among these judges are USA Today, Entertainment Weekly, GameInformer, Wired, VentureBeat, Associated Press, The Penny Arcade Report, PC Gamer, Giant Bomb, Official Xbox Magazine, G4, PlayStation: The Official Magazine, Joystiq, Vox, 1UP Network, Gamespot, Gamespy, Destructoid, Kotaku, Games Radar, Nintendo Power, Gamer, Machinima.com, IGN, Yahoo! Games, SpikeTV, The Electric Playground, UGO, GameTrailers, Gannett, Ars Tecnica, The Escapist, ShackNews, The Daily, and EGM.

Previous judges have included AOL GameDaily, TIME, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, Variety, Play Magazine, Business 2.0, CNN, Comcast Games, Giant, Los Angeles Times, Playboy, Washington Post, San Jose Mercury News, Games For Windows Magazine, PSM, Game-Revolution.

Winners

The Game Critics Awards co-chairmen, Geoff Keighley and Rob Smith, determine what categories will be open each year. After E3, the judges submit their top five nominees for each category and from those, official nominees are named. The judges then vote for their top pick in each category among those final nominations. In the event of a tie, the title with the most total nominations will break the tie.

For a full list of nomations for each year, see the corresponding E3 page for that year.

BEST OF SHOW

2012 Best of Show

BEST ORIGINAL GAME

2002 Best Original Game

BEST CONSOLE GAME

1998 Best Console Game

BEST PC GAME

2003 Best PC Game

BEST HANDHELD / MOBILE GAME

2005 Best Handheld Game

BEST PERIPHERAL / HARDWARE

1999 Best Hardware

BEST ACTION GAME

2007 Best Action Game

BEST ACTION / ADVENTURE GAME

2008 Best Action/Adventure Game

BEST DOWNLOADABLE GAME

2011 Best Downloadable Game

BEST FIGHTING GAME

2000 Best Fighting Game

BEST MOTION SIMULATION

BEST ONLINE MULTIPLAYER

1998 Best Online Multiplayer

BEST PLATFORMER

BEST RACING GAME

2004 Best Racing Game

BEST ROLE PLAYING GAME

2009 Best RPG

BEST SIMULATION GAME

2003 Best Simulation Game

BEST SOCIAL/CASUAL/PUZZLE/PARLOR GAME

2001 Best Casual Game

BEST SPORTS GAME

2006 Best Sports Game

BEST STRATEGY GAME

2000 Best Strategy Game

SPECIAL COMMENDATION FOR GRAPHICS

1999 Graphics

SPECIAL COMMENDATION FOR INNOVATION

SPECIAL COMMENDATION FOR SOUND

BEST BOOTH

BEST PARTY

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